Not many people know how to milk a cow and hit a perfect iron shot, but coach and professor Andrew Delong is a man of many talents. Growing up in a small town, there’s not much to do other than wonder what is happening around you. Delong says he went to a small high school where they did not have golf so one might wonder how he entered the golf scene. He said it’s thanks to his college roommate taking him out to play between classes and his hours spent on his PlayStation in his dorm. After graduating from UW-Stout with a bachelor’s degree in technological education, he earned his master’s degree from National Louis University in educational leadership.

Teaching is something that Delong had always thought about doing since his mom was also a teacher. He says “Teachers raise teachers,” and what drives his passion for education. Sheboygan North High School was his first teaching job after getting his degree and he put down roots there for almost 20 years as he taught and coached there. Looking back, he says there’s a different dynamic between high schoolers and college students, both in his coaching and teaching. “There’s better conversation,” Delong says about his college students compared to high schoolers. Although he claims he does miss seeing the same students every day in his class, he doesn’t regret coming to teach at Stout.

Stout offered him the opportunity to coach the golf program in 2019 and he jumped at the chance. “It was definitely the coaching that drew me here,” he said. However, he did pick teaching back up in the graphic communications program after being offered a more full-time teaching job for Stout. In more recent years though, he has now shifted his focus onto the growing golf enterprise management or GEM program. As the program director, he oversees many of the golf-related classes and helps his students find a love for the sport. He works with colleagues in related majors like hospitality to round out students’ experiences and prepare them for the growing and changing career of golf.

Delong worked many jobs including the Menards Distribution Center during his time at college, but one of the more impressive titles on his resume is his time spent working at Whistling Straits Golf Course in Kohler, Wisconsin. Working at such a high-level course allowed him to learn many skills that help with his teaching and coaching such as soft skills and managing people and players. Delong left this summer job after being offered his coaching job at UW-Stout but did say he would like to return to the golf industry some time. He said, “I couldn’t coach the way I wanted to if I worked in the golf industry.” He says that not a lot of jobs offer the flexibility of coaching and teaching which is why his dreams of returning to the golf scene remain on the backburner.

However, multitasking at this extreme can be mentally and physically frustrating. He says, “It’s really hard right now when I’m in season to be ready for class.” A lot of the material he has to teach himself before he can teach it to his students. Still, this sport is nothing new to him after spending the summers in Kohler when he wasn’t teaching in Sheboygan. While he likes his teaching job and loves his work, he mainly focuses on the golf team since it requires a lot of attention to function and succeed. His work displays having multiple team wins and WIAC Champions, but he never imagined he would be coaching and teaching at a collegiate level. “If anyone would’ve told me I was going to come back here as an instructor and a golf coach, I would have said they were crazy,” he said.

Like lots of other coaches, sports teams require a lot of attention which he says he tends to prioritize over other things such as work and family. He does say that he wants to improve his work-life balance which he admits can be challenging. Although head women’s golf coach Sophia Connett said, “ I do think that he works really hard and values work a lot… but he is home every night for dinner.” Hard work is something that Delong knows well because of his values growing up on a dairy farm and his ability to adapt to the multiple jobs he holds.